


Dominoes Fall

by coldfiredragon



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Angst, F/M, Heavy Themes, M/M, mad royal family of fillory AU, mad royals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-02
Updated: 2017-07-02
Packaged: 2018-11-22 13:13:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11380896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coldfiredragon/pseuds/coldfiredragon
Summary: Their fall into madness begins before any of them ever leave for Fillory.





	Dominoes Fall

**Author's Note:**

> This will be a multi-chapter fic, and it'll have a lot of dark themes, a lot of pairing, and a lot of OOC actions! You've been warned.

Their fall into madness starts before any of them ever leave for Fillory. It begins when Penny can’t stand the constant cries of voices in his mind and starts looking for a way to either silence them for good or blunt them in a way that they can no longer bother him. Sunderland’s neck patch works for a while, but after he watches his mentor shoot himself in the skull, he needs something more permanent. He doesn’t want to care anymore, and he finds a way to do that when he pops into the school library late one night and starts looking for a way to block his emotions. 

 

Severing his shade seems extreme until he carefully draws it away from his chest for a moment and feels an immediate weight lift off his shoulders. The voices fade to a whisper, and after a day or so he starts to ignore them completely because all that matters is his survival. He doesn’t tell any of the others what he’s done, and as they turn to emotion bottles to learn battle magic, he does as well. None of them seem to notice that his bottle has about a fourth of the red liquid that theirs’ do. 

 

The three-hour window runs out, and everyone else walks back to the cottage, but Penny claims he wants privacy, and stays under the lights in the clearing. He swallows the contents and feels a momentary rush of emotion. It settles quickly, and Penny aims his hands at an empty wine bottle Eliot had finished as they had practiced. He guides them through the fast motions of the spell and a clean slice cuts through the glass. 

 

A satisfied grin spreads across his face, and he saunters back to the cottage with a spring in his step. His friends are in various stages of nervous breakdowns. Penny throws himself down onto the couch beside Eliot and takes the scotch bottle from Eliot’s hands. Eliot’s mind is leaking like a pasta strainer, and Penny picks up a stray thought or two that he files away for later. He tracks the other man’s gaze across the cottage, where Alice is babbling about how much she loves Quentin, while Quentin has been thrown into the worst depression Penny has seen since he met him.

 

Penny thinks about how his survival rests on these assholes, and their emotional hang-ups and he realizes that he has to make them see that giving up their shades is the right path if they actually want to defeat the Beast. He isn’t so worried about Alice because he thinks that she might be strong enough, even with her shade, to master battle magic. He sees proof of that a few nights later when he walks Alice through the spells, and she succeeds. Penny almost feels something when her arms wrap around his throat, and she bounces with glee following her success. 

 

Quentin, Eliot, and Margo are still leaning on their emotion bottles like crutches, and Penny wonders what will happen as the third hour nears its end, but they continue to practice. He lets the time slide by and stays with Alice in the clearing as they all head inside well after the allotted three hours has passed. Finding out in the morning that they’ve slept together would have been awkward if Penny actually still cared. What he sees instead is an opportunity, and he corners Eliot as the taller upperclassman lays in the nook with a bottle of wine. 

 

Unblinking amber eyes stare at the ceiling above him as Penny slides in beside him. The heartbreak is evident to anyone with eyes because apparently, the only one who hadn’t realized that Eliot is in love with Quentin is Quentin himself. 

 

“Go the fuck away Penny.”

 

“What the fuck happened last night?”

 

“The never-ending train wreck that is my life,” Eliot tells him. “We all got raging drunk, Margo slept with Quentin…” Tears shimmer in the corners of Eliot’s eyes, and they are blinked free when his lids close. “I was going to let them fuck, I couldn’t, she was my best friend. She knew how I felt! Then Quentin kissed me and….” Eliot trailed off. “Of course he’s pissed off at both of us now, so none of it matters.” 

 

“Fuck them both,” Penny tells him bluntly. “Your best friends cheated on you? Fuck them.” Eliot rolls away from him, but Penny grabs his arm and yanks him onto his back then straddles his lean thighs. “No, listen to me!” He orders before Eliot can complain. “I’ve got it all figured out.” He works his hands through the spell and draws Eliot’s shade away from his body. Eliot’s chest rises quickly as he inhales

 

“What did you do to me?” Eliot’s voice is nervous but curious, and he stares at Penny’s hands, at the faint light making the nook glow around them. “What is that?” 

 

“It’s your shade. You don’t need it, El. Think of how powerful you could be if you weren’t burdened by everything that haunts your past? If what you did to Mike, and to Logan, didn’t hold you back.” Eliot inhales sharply, but his face is relaxed. He looks like he’s experiencing relief for the first time in days, no years, so Penny twists the knife. “Think about how good it would feel if Quentin yelling at you like he did this morning didn’t bother you.” Eliot’s breath hitches, and after a moment he nods.

 

“I don’t want to feel any of it anymore.” Penny grins down at him and finishes the spell to permanently separate his shade. Eliot lays relaxed and content for a couple of minutes, and Penny is ready to crawl out of the nook when Eliot grabs him and rolls. The taller boy ends up on top and Penny suddenly finds his arms pinned above his head by an invisible force.

 

The way Eliot can bend when he leans down and claims Penny’s mouth is impossibly pretty, and Penny wonders what the hell Quentin sees in Alice when he could have this instead. Eliot starts with his lips, then slowly moves down his neck and bare chest, showering the skin with kisses and small nips as he goes. By the time Eliot is between his legs, Penny is as hard as he’s ever been with any girl. Eliot’s telekinesis makes quick work of his pants, and then Eliot’s mouth is around him. It’s the best goddamn blow-job Penny has ever had in his life. 

 

“I’m going to fuck you.” Eliot purrs quietly as Penny is getting is breath back. Something in his tone makes Penny’s cock twitch. The other man has always managed to exude confidence, but it practically radiates from him now. There’s something regal about him that’s been set free now that the little voice in the back of his head is gone. Penny has no idea where the lube or condom he uses come from, but he doesn’t complain, and fifteen minutes later they are laying naked together in the nook as Penny plays with the loose curls of Eliot’s hair. 

 

“We need to make the rest of them see that this is the only way.” Penny tells him. Eliot hums against his neck in agreement, and Penny grins. The Beast won’t see them coming.


End file.
